The Black Book (1929) - A giant hand and a very weird taxi

If you have twenty minutes and like seeing people in 1920s suits run around like they've had way too much coffee, it's worth a look. Serials like this are for people who enjoy the pure chaos of old cinema. If you need a logical plot or high-def visuals, you're probably gonna hate this one. 🤷‍♂️

The whole thing kicks off with Dora Blake pretending to be an art student. She's actually working for the police, which is a classic trope even back then. She’s holding a paint palette in one scene but she isn't really painting anything. It's just there so we know she's 'undercover.'

Then we have Ted Bradley. He's played by Walter Miller and is described as a 'wealthy waster' which is honestly a great job title to have. I wish I could put that on my taxes. He loses all his money and decides the best move is to buy a taxi.

Like, his last fifty dollars goes straight into a cab. It reminded me a bit of the vibe in Taxi for Two, but way less funny and more desperate. He partners up with a driver named Tin Lung, played by Willie Fung. It's a weird subplot for a movie about a secret vault.

Walter Miller has this very intense face. He looks like he’s constantly trying to remember if he left his oven on back at the mansion. He spends a lot of time trying to talk Dora out of her mission, but she's not having it. She's the one with the actual backbone here.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Black Book (1929) through its definitive frames.

The bad guys are led by Tony LeBec. Honestly, his name sounds like a fancy brand of crackers you'd buy at a specialty store. But he's supposed to be dangerous. His group is after this 'Black Book' which is hidden in some Imperial vaults.

They don't really explain why the book is so important in this first part. It’s just 'valuable.' In these old movies, a book or a statue is always just valuable enough to get people killed for no clear reason. It's a classic MacGuffin, I guess.

There is a spy named Sally Davis who frames Dora. Sally is supposed to be a model, but she’s clearly way better at being a villain. The way she delivers the fake news to Dora is so over the top. You can almost see her thinking about her next evil plan while she's talking.

The scene in the vault is where things get really good. Or weird. Maybe both. It looks less like an 'Imperial vault' and more like someone's damp basement with some crates tossed around. But the shadows are great.

Poor Officer Sullivan gets it here. One minute he's escorting Dora, and the next he's murdered. The way he falls is so dramatic. People in 1929 really knew how to die for the camera. It’s much more theatrical than the stuff you see in Alias Jimmy Valentine.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Black Book (1929) through its definitive frames.

Then comes the 'Great Hand.' As Dora is looking around, this literal giant hand reaches out of the darkness. It’s probably just a guy in a big sleeve, but it looks super creepy on the old grainy film. It just comes out of the shadows like a monster movie.

Dora gets a hood thrown over her head and she's gone. And then—cliffhanger! I love how these chapters just stop. No resolution, no logic, just a title card telling you to come back for Capter 2.

I noticed one of the extras in the background of the street scene just staring at the camera for a second. It’s those little mistakes that make these old reels feel alive to me. You can tell they were rushing to get this shot before the sun went down. It doesn't have the polish of something like The IX Olympiad in Amsterdam, that's for sure.

The action is fast, maybe too fast. Sometimes the editing cuts away right when you want to see what's happening. It feels like they were trying to cram sixty minutes of story into twenty. It’s a bit like Racing Through in terms of that frantic energy.

Is it a masterpiece? No way. But it’s a fun slice of history. It’s grainy, it’s loud (well, visually loud), and it has a giant hand. What else do you really need on a Tuesday night? I’ll probably track down the next part just to see if the hand belongs to a giant or just a really tall guy in a cloak. 🎬